Pages

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Penguins Game 64 Recap - Penguins 5, Avalanche 1

So going to Colorado against a non playoff team that is fighting to get in the playoff picture you expect to play in a tight game where one mistake can make the difference in getting two points and none. Well, that wasn’t tonight. The Penguins dominated in pretty much every facet of the game and scored a pair of goals in each of the first and second periods and threw in an empty netter in the third for a 5-1 win.

Not really too much to say. Secondary scoring was really the story of the game from the offensive side. Arron Asham got the part started beating Jean-Sebastien Giguere five hole. Deryk Engelland scored his fourth goal of the season a few minutes later on a great shot pass from Jordan Staal. Man that Staal character is pretty terrible at hockey, I wish we would have traded him years ago.

Evgeni Malkin scored his 38th after James Neal hit the post off a feed from Paul Martin and Malkin cleaned it up and then Richard Park scored just as a penalty expired on a breakaway coming out of the box. That happens like once a year and it happened to be today. Sullivan finished it off with the empty netter.

Not too much else to say. How good has Paul Martin and Zbynek Michalek been the past couple of weeks? Really good actually. Ben Lovejoy wasn't that great tonight but he hasn't played too much recently so I guess there is something to be said in that aspect. Other than that the defensive unit looked pretty good. It was pretty easy to see that the Penguins missed Kris Letang but the Avalanche really didn't put up much of a fight so it was a moot point.

I actually expected a lot more from the Avalanche tonight. Like I said before they were fighting for a playoff spot and they actually came out fast in the first five minutes. They were leading 7-0 in shots and then things just went down the tubes for them. The Penguins go to their game and it was pretty much all over. Steve Downie tried to troll but the Penguins really had nothing of it.

The one low spot for the Penguins was that the power play went 0-for-3 and really didn't look good in any of their opportunities. This has been something that the Penguins have struggled with in the past couple games and I am just going to chalk it up to a bad streak. James Neal has been shut out on the power play for some time but that unit should bounce back. They will have to figure it out without Letang which will be difficult since Letang can do so much on the power play.

The penalty kill was a perfect 4-for-4 and have killed off 45 of the last 47 short handed chances since February 1st. Not too shabby.

Marc Andre Fleury made 35 saves. I guess he’s been alright.

The fifth straight win for the Pens. Starting to get really good at the right time.